Articles - Assurance

NWDAF Enthusiasm in 2022

Based on recent conversations with telcos and vendors, interest in NWDAF appears to have had a small uptick since 2021.   However, it is often just a small part of a bigger RFI/RFP.  The drivers and barriers towards adoption considered to be:  

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The state of the Market for 5G Assurance

The diagram below sets out product development trends seen across assurance. It is a summary of topics discussed at vendor interview when asked about what they were currently creating and selling in 5G assurance – it is a mix of: existing products those on the roadmap discussion of problems which will require future assurance products […]

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Future of NWDAF

The future of NWDAF is not very clear.  The most influential pros and cons to NWDAF are shown here: NWDAF aims to solve a single issue in the deployment of automated, hybrid and 5G networks – the provision of high-performance data/analytics to allow “fast” control loop for automation Market commentators discuss the possibility that its […]

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Developments in 5G Assurance Capabilities

This diagram sets out the uses for 5G assurance data – split by the types of analytics/ML needed (going down the rows) and those requiring the data (going across the columns): The blue boxes show activities which increase in importance in a 5G network: Issue prediction, automated root cause analysis and adaptive thresholds for KPIs […]

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Development of the Market for 5G Assurance

The diagram explores the idea that “pockets” of 5G assurance capabilities will be developed by vendors – assuming that vendor priority will be to expand their capabilities in areas of current expertise. The box colours denote:  Blue = network assurance, Green = service assurance, Purple = enterprise-focussed assurance, Pink = new or niche capabilities, Grey […]

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How can Telcos Offer Edge Assurance to Customers and Partners?

The diagram below shows the main options that a telco might have to deliver assurance products at the edge to its customers and partners – assuming that this is something that a telco with an aggressive strategy in IoT would want (or need) to do. The pink arrows across the top describe groups of capabilities […]

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Assuring the Edge – Considerations for Telcos

This research took a broad approach to the definitions of both “the edge” and “assurance” to enable the investigation of the new assurance that a telco will require as it deploys networks, infrastructure, devices and services to support customers taking a mix of network products, edge compute and IoT services from the telco. It was […]

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Discussing the Future of A3 in Telco Assurance

I sat down with Chris Menier from assurance/AIOps vendor, Vitria, for a 15 minute discussion on the future of assurance. Please find a summary of the discussion and access to the audio, here: https://www.vitria.com/customer-centric-network-assurance-strategies-pdf-audio  

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Competitive Landscape for A3 in Assurance

The market is a “red ocean” due to the multiple current and near-term opportunities provided by new 5G networks. As graphically represented below, incumbent vendors still have the “inside track” on the most impactful solutions for the NOC, with smaller players providing a diversity of solutions across the telco using the assurance data set.  In […]

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The Future Value of A3 in Assurance

Tied to Network Development The total cost benefits delivered by A3 across assurance functions is very much tied to the delivery of 5G. Interviews with 11 assurance vendors yielded insight into the gently increasing S-curve of value from assurance functions as demonstrated in the figure below.     * y-axis on the graphic = yearly […]

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